as the article below points out the geneva city school had to exceed the tax cap last year and now the school system wants even more money

the canandaigua school system covers 80 square miles and all their students are bused

the geneva school system only covers 40 square miles and not all students are bused

strange that canandaigua can bus all their students and still spend far less per student than the geneva school system

must be the canandaigua buses run on sunshine and rain drops

guardian glass just got a $30 million reduction in their taxes

how much will the geneva school taxes go up with those two conditions?

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GENEVA — Residents get their chance to sound off on the city school district’s $48.825 million budget proposal at a public hearing tonight.

Susan Gray, the district’s director of business and finance, said officials will offer a PowerPoint presentation on the budget before taking comments and questions. The session starts at 6 p.m. in the high school library.

The budget would increase the tax levy by 1.95 percent, bringing it to $18.051 million. Because the state formula allows Geneva a tax increase of 0.34 percent, the district will need the approval of at least 60 percent of its voters May 19 to enact the budget.

If the district gets it, the tax rate will rise from $21.82 per $1,000 of assessed property value to $22.17. For a home assessed at $100,000, that equates to a $35 hike in school taxes.

If the budget fails, administrators can reassess the plan and hold another vote. If it fails a second time, the district would adopt a contingency budget.

The budget increases spending by about $2 million over the current fiscal year. It includes these cuts:

• A counselor’s position (through resignation). A behavioral psychologist will replace the position.

• A teacher (a teacher is relocating).

• Three teaching assistants.

• Reduced hours for one secretary.

The district will realize savings by replacing higher-paid retirees with new hires and through a $60,000 reduction in transportation expenses.

On the other side of the ledger, the district divided the proposed spending increase into two categories. The first, which totals $1.437 million, includes increases in the cost of debt service, insurance, salaries and BOCES; the second, which totals $613,219, includes additions Superintendent Trina Newton proposed April 9. Those additions include a cleaner, a groundskeeper, a full-time translator/interpreter, a social worker, another dual language teacher, and, possibly, a teacher evaluator.

In addition, administrators are proposing $300,000 worth of technology upgrades.

District officials say many of the additions restore items cut in previous years.

The school board unanimously approved the budget last month.

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"OUR COUNTRY IS IN MOURNING, A SOLDIER DIED TODAY."

In 2014 40% of GCSD kids were living in defined poverty. 2017 it's 55%. Most graduates who go to college do not come back to Geneva or upstate New York because of employment opportunity and taxes. That leaves behind those stuck in the cycle of socio-economic poverty, a dwindling senior citizen population due to no housing and high taxes, and lower middle income families. Soon the taxes will be so high that instead of having 60% of the cities residential units as rentals, it will be closer to 75%. With the high taxes cutting into profits of landlords or in some cases negating them, the houses will be maintained even more poorly (meeting code and nothing more) and will slowly decline street by street until over half of Geneva looks like Colt Street.

In 2014 40% of GCSD kids were living in defined poverty. 2017 it's 55%. Most graduates who go to college do not come back to Geneva or upstate New York because of employment opportunity and taxes. That leaves behind those stuck in the cycle of socio-economic poverty, a dwindling senior citizen population due to no housing and high taxes, and lower middle income families. Soon the taxes will be so high that instead of having 60% of the cities residential units as rentals, it will be closer to 75%. With the high taxes cutting into profits of landlords or in some cases negating them, the houses will be maintained even more poorly (meeting code and nothing more) and will slowly decline street by street until over half of Geneva looks like Colt Street.

Hold city council and the school board accountable.

the school budget was just $48 million two years ago

now they want $56 million?

seems to be a nearly 17% increase in just two years

enrollment is down

LOWER the budget by 17%

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"OUR COUNTRY IS IN MOURNING, A SOLDIER DIED TODAY."

$35 per $100,000 equates for most people in Geneva to lessthan $ 1 per week. That's a very small amount to pay to educate our young people and give them a "CHANCE" in life whether here or someplace else!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

$35 per $100,000 equates for most people in Geneva to lessthan $ 1 per week. That's a very small amount to pay to educate our young people and give them a "CHANCE" in life whether here or someplace else!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But it's not just about the one-time tax increase. It's every year, year after year after year. All those "just an extra dollar a week" add up year after year after year. Every time there's a school budget vote citizens are threatened "we will have to go to an austerity budget" and "we'll have to cut programs" and "what's another few dollars a year when it's for the children?" Enough is enough. If enrollment is declining, there is no reason to increase the budget by millions a year.

Those young people you mention will ALL end up someplace else due to the ridiculously high taxes in the city.

The district needs to start making hard choices, starting with the outlandish salary that Trina Newton takes home.

NY State primary education ranks 31st, yet the rate of graduation is higher than at any point in state history. NY's secondary education ranks 14th, and 5th highest in the nation for advanced degrees, job placement and career salary.

One interpretation is that we have made graduation so easy that anyone can do it. Certainly the Regents exams have been dumbed down since we took them. As far as higher education, there's no arguing that NY attracts a solid bench of out-of-state and foreign students, who go on to get great jobs in low tax states.

One interpretation is that we have made graduation so easy that anyone can do it. Certainly the Regents exams have been dumbed down since we took them. As far as higher education, there's no arguing that NY attracts a solid bench of out-of-state and foreign students, who go on to get great jobs in low tax states.

WOW! Those are some rather broad and highly specific leaps of logic. I can do that too, you know.

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Everyone's entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts.

Question, if you saw a Chevrolet salesperson driving nothing but Ford, what does that say about Chevrolet?I grew up in Ovid and went to South Seneca, one of their teacher sent his children to Geneva DeSales, is that a message that I'll take school district's money but I rather send my kids to a better school?

If a charter school with no religious affiliations had taken over DeSales I would have been interested, given that my kids, in 8th grade, were sitting next to students that didn't even know their multiplication tables.

Blue may be closer to being correct than you may think, Timbo. The district's automatic pay ("step") increases, the rate of pension co-pay for the district (the teachers pay nothing after 3 years) and the health care rate all trend together and are fairly constant. I haven't checked his math, but there are few factors that exhibit a downward pressure on school costs. As the last vote indicates, the citizens think this is money worth spending.

Blue may be closer to being correct than you may think, Timbo. The district's automatic pay ("step") increases, the rate of pension co-pay for the district (the teachers pay nothing after 3 years) and the health care rate all trend together and are fairly constant. I haven't checked his math, but there are few factors that exhibit a downward pressure on school costs. As the last vote indicates, the citizens think this is money worth spending.

"May" is the working word, here, and bluezone is notorious for making ludicrous conclusions based on inane leaps of logic and a highly biased agenda, as she's once again doing in this instance.

So, I challenge bluezone or anyone else to try to make informed, accurate prognostications of the relevant financial numbers, seven years hence.

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Everyone's entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts.

So, I challenge bluezone or anyone else to try to make informed, accurate prognostications of the relevant financial numbers, seven years hence.[/size]

You know that the school budget has increased 17% over the past two years

now just use those same numbers going out 7 years and you will see that the school budget will reach $100 MILLION if the current trend continues

the school employees vote for all increases in the budget because it benefits them

the school budget and the employee (pay, benefits, healthcare, pensions...) budget should be seperated and voted on seperately

the employees and their familes should not be allowed to vote themselves an increase

Quote:

Quote:

Seventy percent or more of our annual budgets go to personnel costs, including the pensions, health care and salaries of our teachers and staff, past and present.

We face state employee pension, workers compensation and healthcare costs for the upcoming year that continue to overwhelm school budgets

Trina NewtonGeneva CSD

Quote:

Trina Newton - As far as the issues, when I look at the financial piece, healthcare is just out of control. When I take a look at what’s driving the budgets, it’s not what should be driving the budgets.

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"OUR COUNTRY IS IN MOURNING, A SOLDIER DIED TODAY."

Blue may be closer to being correct than you may think, Timbo. The district's automatic pay ("step") increases, the rate of pension co-pay for the district (the teachers pay nothing after 3 years) and the health care rate all trend together and are fairly constant. I haven't checked his math, but there are few factors that exhibit a downward pressure on school costs. As the last vote indicates, the citizens think this is money worth spending.

"May" is the working word, here, and bluezone is notorious for making ludicrous conclusions based on inane leaps of logic and a highly biased agenda, as she's once again doing in this instance.

So, I challenge bluezone or anyone else to try to make informed, accurate prognostications of the relevant financial numbers, seven years hence.

you have had plenty of time to run the basic numbers

double check the numbers below - it is simple math

if the current increases to the school budget over the past two years were drawn out over the next 7 years the numbers below indicate a $100 million school budget in just over 7 years

starting with the current $56 million school budget

the next years budget would be $60,760,000 if the same increases were applied

Just how do you come up with the numbers to support that absurd statement? Do you think it's really possible that a 514 to 156 victory was due to school employees voting while the rest of the community stayed home? If that's true, shame on us.

There are so many school employees that cant vote for this budget because they dont live in the district so even if the ones that did all voted, it would not be that overwhelming. I think the problem may have been the number of tax payers that did not get out there to vote for this budget. That is just my thought......

First, if you are the school district, you have to ask yourself who your likely yes votes are; generally these are the parents and grandparents who have kids in school.

Then you need a way to make sure those yes votes get to the polls, so you schedule concerts, plays, and athletic events on the day of the vote. You might even mention that the polls are open when you introduce the event.

Finally, you mail out a newsletter just before the vote extolling the wonderful achievements students have made, while carefully avoiding any reference to the test data that tells an entirely different story.

If there is a capital project, you explain how the project is "free" because the local share comes from the capital reserve account, as if this isn't money that you were taxed for in previous years.

Make no mention of the budget impact that additional square feet will have on operating costs.

Key Findings• The Board has not adopted a reserve policy.The Board did not include provisions to fund reserves in its annual budgets.Seven reserves with balances totaling $9.4 million (72 percent of total reserves) are overfunded by $7.8 million and potentially unnecessary.

Key Recommendations• The Board should adopt a reserve policy.Appropriately budget to fund reserves.Determine if the amounts reserved are necessary, reasonable and in compliance with statutory requirements.